Hi all. My two short vids were taken on a  hot and terribly humid day whereby my criteria was reduced such that I was just happy that Mya would work in the conditions. Also I have an injured, possibly broken finger strapped on my right hand! Anyway enough excuses. In watching this first vid I can see that I really need to concentrate on the areas Forrest has already pointed out. For starters soften my voice. Then there are 3 times when I mark Mya's heeling. The first time I say yes and stop at the same time - bugger, no treat for me! The second effort is the tiniest bit better and the third is fair. Shortly after this Mya's head is really dropping and I cut away to give her a break. I come back a couple of minutes later with a Topmatic ball which livens her up a bit in my second quick vid.

Great feedback for yourself, Cheryl!!! I really dig how good students get around this point at critiquing each other. So, I like everything you're doing. You've got a great understanding in her regarding position in heel and one advantage, too, is that the position you use when heeling really supports it. You've done a great job teaching it, and competitive picture you use is availalbe to you in trial so I can't imagine you'll have inconsistencies in position. And I'm proud of you for going beyond that and proofing Mya's understanding of position despite where your hand is... it will only contribute to the strength of her understanding. The upwards reward releases are awesome! Yes, you can be a bit softer in some of your cues/communication. And one big area of opportunity for you, I believe, is to have more dynamic 'break-out' reward events. Even throwing food for her to chase, or doing mulitple hand chases with food in them. I think if she percieves a bit more energy in the reward attached to heeling, that you'll have more juice there. Her motivation for heeling is great, don't get me wrong, but there are some small moments where she'll drop her head or check out (:36)... and I think a little more intensity could work in your favor. One way to do that is to make the reward events more dyamic. This will also set us up to reward less (frequency) as we span the work out... becasue although reward frequency will be less, when we do reward, it will be great! Other than that, all the pieces are in place. Good move adding the top-matic to the work to grab a bit more go. We cover toys next so you can move to that exclusively in the future if it keeps her at the right energy. My dogs aren't as psyched for food either, so considering the warm weather, food reward, and your broken finger... I think this is a pretty dynamite session!

As I'm saying to the rest - my tablet doesn't transfer correct formatting... so it's a glob of words!!!